Estate of McCauley

Jennie C. McCauley duly executed a will on February 12, 1900, in which she, among others, made several bequests to charitable institutions. On March 16, 1900, she duly executed a codicil to this will. She died April 14, 1900, twenty-eight days after the execution of the codicil. The state, by the attorney-general, filed objections and contest to the petition for final distribution, so far as concerned the charitable bequests, and prayed that they be adjudged void, and that they be distributed to the state for the support of the common schools. The trial court adjudged the said bequests to be valid, and decreed distribution accordingly. The state appeals from the decree. The codicil did not attempt to change any of the charitable bequests or any of the general provisions of the will, but related solely to specific bequests and devises to certain individual legatees. It stated that “the foregoing codicil . . . was, at the date hereof, . . . signed, sealed, and published as, and declared to be, together with the will set forth on the preceding pages, to be her last will and testament,” etc.

Section 1313 of the Civil Code provides as follows: “No estate, real or personal, shall be…